RADJY

FARROKH FARIBORZ

Farrokh Fariborz Radjy -- founder and president of Quadrel LLC, an information technology company that has played a pioneering role in the concrete and construction technology industry -- died on January 27 at his home in Shadyside in Pittsburgh's East End. He was 84. He founded his company two years after he and his wife, Anahita Firouz Radjy, moved to Pittsburgh from London in 1982. Dr. Radjy was initially director at Elkem Chemicals in Pittsburgh, the Norwegian company's North American headquarters.

He launched his own company, Digital Site Systems, after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania gave him a grant for a new technology. The company was renamed Quadrel LLC when his daughter, Anousha Radjy, joined the firm as his partner in 2012. An innovator and dedicated scientist, he obtained over 30 U.S. Patents.

Farrokh Radjy, known as Farro to his colleagues and friends, was born on October 26, 1940, in Tehran, Iran. His mother was descended from the chiefs or khans of the Teymouri tribe in Iran's Khurasan province, and his father, an engineer and civil servant at Iran's prestigious Plan and Budget Organization, had studied in Great Britain.

Farrokh Radjy matriculated at Jesus College, the University of Cambridge, where he graduated with a degree in mechanical tripos engineering. He went on to receive his doctorate at Stanford University and became an assistant professor at the university before submitting his thesis in material sciences in 1968. He moved to Copenhagen where he was associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark until his return to Iran in 1974, a period of oil-fueled growth and prosperity. After teaching at the top ranking Aryamehr University (Iran's MIT), later renamed Sharif University of Technology, he founded a consulting engineering firm with his father, named Cantab. The firm rapidly grew to include over one-hundred employees and was awarded prestigious government projects.

In 1978, he met Anahita Firouz in Tehran. She was working as a producer at the Iranian state television at the time. The couple married in April 1979. In the turbulence of the revolution after the overthrow of the king, the revolutionary forces imprisoned Ms. Firouz's father, a former minister for the environment and the son of a prince from the Qajar dynasty that had ruled Iran from 1789 to 1925.

After leaving Iran in 1981, and a brief period as exiles in Europe, the couple settled in Pittsburgh, where their daughter, Anousha, and son, Amir-Hussein were born.

Farrokh Radjy, considered a visionary and mentor in his field, was an admirer of opera and classical Persian music, an avid runner, as well as tennis player and skier in his younger days. For forty years he led his company working full-time until his death this January. His daughter, Anousha Radjy, has succeeded him as the new president of Quadrel LLC.

Farrokh F. Radjy is survived by his wife, Anahita Firouz Radjy; and his children, Anousha Radjy, Amir-Hussein Radjy; and Sanam Keleher and Leily Brackett from a previous marriage; and four grandchildren.